In the captalism will have aways someone to gain and loose, the balance never will be in the same weight, becouse who have more aways will have more and who have less aways will have less.The only different thing is who will broke their financial acount first???? To do not have a domino effects the major economies has to avoid the others countries broke to do not broke so hard like last 2008´s US House Market did in worl crises.

Joe. I am not so sure on the British banks, but it seems they are happy with the BASEL transparency measures being taken, while German and French ones kicked off. (In the topic about German banks)

Most of the 'British' banks have been in part nationalised due to state interference in the markets. I think that Natwest and Barclays are the only players left other than the BoE. Care to take bets who has what...?

Thanks for the link - interesting article.
I tend to think Portugal will be different than Ireland, which electorally has not "exploded" (and neither has Greece). These countries need a ray of light however. The EU cannot be represented just by ECB bankers.
The Economist calls this muddling through, but our hope is that interest rates on sovereign debt will drop by the end of the year. On the other hand, it is clear getting through 2011 is going to be rocky...

BTW, Perhaps you are right about foreign firms, but conversely, how many "British" banks depend upon foreign sources for funding, savings, etc.?

JoeSolaris> The problem with that graph is that it is not strictly speaking, honest. If you look up what companies in the UK have such exposure you'll find that the majority are owned by foreign businesses.

So the UK's 'true' exposure is closer to 50-75Bn, and a sell up of those foreign owned companies would be very good for the UK businesses. If you don't believe this, go look it up. One man's poison is another man's nectar.

Go back and read the graph at the top of this page. If problems really continue in the "PIG" countries - if there is anything resembling a real default there - the UK has a lot more exposure than Italy does.

Our deficit was at 4.6% last year. We have a reasonable chance of making it under the 3.0% Maastricht limit this year. In a real pinch, (Greek-style austerity programme) we could achieve a balanced budget at any time - and still avoid recession.

@ Jim1981
my dear smartass. look at the velocity. at that rate and maintaining the popolution at the same rate (which is statistically true for most of them) the National Debt of UK, USA, Germany, and others will double that of Italy. Besides, UK, USA, and Germany (for example) have a fake economy with financial speculations which will bring soon or late to collapsing the system.

It took "them" a full year to bring down Portugal, which in the end fell because of political interests rather than a real need for a bailout. In the meantime their masks have dropped after the poor treatment of Portugal's situation . we now all know what "they" are really after. And "they" have even raised concerned on how this is having a major impact in the normal democratic processes of nations. The king is naked again, and we now see "their" true colours.~

No go figure who "they" are. I've been warning for this for over 6 months now.

It is my firm belief that Portugal's is the last bailout. And this because Portugal's bailout wasn't even needed as anyone with a pen, a critical mind, and access to macroeconomic data can figure out on his own. This means that any attempts at bringing down Spain or Italy will be met with suspicion. Enough is enough . You have failed .

I really hate to serve truth all the time however, i have been writing here about German banks which have caused the Euro crisis and now, its clear and evident to EVERYONE in the world this is happening. look at my cooments from 18 months ago. Same thing. German banks will fail and Germans will pay for Europe. I have my bottle of sekt for the first German bank to fail. I suggest its going down June. Overleveraged and undercapitalized...Schade

They are all the same: a reckless, profligate & nauseatingly greedy bunch of pretentious & self-serving carpetbaggers, who are finaly paying the price of their insane wantonness. Serves them all right! They deserve each other..

SIR,
I in common with many people in the UK would not mind so much contributing to the Euro currency countries problems, if (A) we were in the Euro zone, (B) we had been asked in the UK if we wished to be in the European Union,in the first place, which we never have had the oportunety of putting our point of view, nor I hasten to add will we ever be given said opportunity, certainly with the current political set up,in the UK, and pressures from Brussels.

I think that you are right to highlight the exposure of the German banks to the peripheral nations in the Euro zone. However if we look at Greece and how things have gone since her "rescue" we can see that there are still problems. Here is a quote from a good blog post on the Greek government bond market.

" Her ten-year government bond yield closed at 13.3% and the spread over the equivalent German bund rose to yet another high of 9.85%. Her shorter dated bonds particularly ones exposed to when the Euro zone suggests that restructuring in theory may happen (summer 2013) surged. For example she has a bond which expires in May 2014 which has a coupon/interest-rate of 6.5% which closed at 68.81. When you consider that it in theory will return a price of 100 in May 2014 you can see how the interest-rate is now 18.68%.

The current ten-year bond was only issued a year ago at approximately 99 and is now priced at 63.78 which speaks for itself really as a summary of how Greece’s financial fortunes have gone over this period."http://t.co/H4reeAa

Interesting to realise that the total of the bail-out fund is so much less than the total exposure of the foreign banks.
Add in the domestic exposure of banks in the affected countries and rescue seems cheap at the price.